Belle+Keehn

On December 28, 1921, 30-year-old housekeeper Belle Keehn died at the Chicago Lying-In Hospital from lung abscesses and septicemia caused by an abortion perpetrated by an unknown doctor on or about November 27.

Documents are unclear as to how it was determined that the perpetrator was a doctor. The hospital was a reputable facility, not a seedy abortionarium, so Belle would have received superior care as doctors tried to save her life.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see [|Abortion in the 1920s].

 For more on pre-legalization abortion, see [|The Bad Old Days of Abortion]

 Source:
 * [|Homicide in Chicago Interactive]
 * “Another Victim Points Finger at Dr. Hagenow,” //Chicago Tribune//, January 14, 1922



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